Queensland's corruption watchdog has sounded a warning to candidates in local government elections to keep their campaigns clean, saying past elections saw a spike in vexatious criminal allegations being levelled at rivals.

With campaigns heating up as the March 19 local elections loom across the state, Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Alan MacSporran warned all sitting councillors and candidates not to repeat past practices of falsely reporting their rivals to the CCC for criminal activity for political gain.

"Regrettably, our experience has shown that during election campaigns, some candidates have been known to make allegations to the CCC in the hope of gaining some advantage over rival candidates," Mr MacSporran said.

"Our data indicates that in the weeks prior to and during the 2008 and 2012 local government elections, there was a rise in the number of complaints we received about the local government sector when compared to the yearly average."

Mr McSporran, in conjunction with the Local Government Association of Queensland, will on Monday launch an education campaign urging candidates to keep their bid for election honest.

He urged them to remember that making a complaint about a criminal offence knowing it not to be true was a criminal offence itself.

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"Making baseless complaints to the CCC, and then publicising the fact a complaint has been made, will often cause reputational damage to others and also negatively impact on the person making the complaint," Mr MacSporran said.

However, he said that should not discourage those with genuine complaints from alerting authorities.

"The CCC is not discouraging people from making genuine complaints. We will treat all genuine complaints confidentially and assess them independently and with complete objectivity," Mr MacSporran said.

"Our advice is simple: be honest and don't risk your own campaign by making false complaints.

"Don't promise special favours in return for election donations or support.

"Tell the community who is supporting you and declare all gifts and donations.

"Finally, if you do have genuine concerns, we want you to bring them to the CCC confidentially."

LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam warned candidates who made vexatious claims against their opponents in an attempt to gain a political advantage risked seeing their own campaigns backfire.

"Candidates who act in such a way risk damaging the integrity and image of local government as the level of public administration that is closest to the needs and aspirations of the community," Mr Hallam said.

"The community will respect honest and professional behaviour from all election candidates. While political campaigns in Australia are always robust, voters have no tolerance for dishonesty."